Just an Ordinary Day…Until It Wasn’t
Women of the Bible, Service Dana Rongione Women of the Bible, Service Dana Rongione

Just an Ordinary Day…Until It Wasn’t

In our Bible Study last night, I had the opportunity to teach the story of a woman seldom discussed in Sunday School. Her name barely fills a few verses, yet her courage changed Israel's history!

The story begins with Israel under severe oppression from Jabin, a Canaanite king, whose army was led by the fearsome Sisera. God raised up Deborah, a prophetess, who summoned Barak to lead Israel's army into battle. Though Barak agreed, he insisted on Deborah's company, to which she replied, "I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman" (Judges 4:9).

When the battle turned against Sisera, he fled on foot and sought refuge in the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite.

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Beyond the Noise
Spiritual Growth Dana Rongione Spiritual Growth Dana Rongione

Beyond the Noise

Have you ever played the "telephone game" where everyone sits in a circle and whispers a message from person to person? By the time it reaches the last person, the message has usually transformed into something hilariously different from the original.

I was thinking about this recently while reading about Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Poor Elijah was having what we might call a spiritual breakdown. After his magnificent victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel threatened his life, and suddenly our brave prophet was running for the hills—literally.

He ended up at Mount Horeb (also known as Sinai), exhausted, depressed, and feeling completely alone. "I, even I only, am left," he lamented to God, "and they seek my life, to take it away" (1 Kings 19:10).

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